Water Metering in Ireland
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The process of fitting water meters to more than one million homes in Ireland will begin from July 2013.
Contractors working for the Bord Gáis will begin installing equipment needed to fit the meters, which are central to charging householders for their water use. Bord Gáis, which is responsible for establishing the State’s new water supply company, published notices yesterday seeking suppliers for boundary boxes and other equipment needed to install the meters. The move is the first significant step towards metering water supplies to about 1.05 million homes in the Republic. The gas company is scheduled to complete the process of selecting the contractors by next March. They are scheduled to begin fitting the equipment in July and are expected to complete in December 2016. The boxes will be connected to the stop-cock point, that is, the junction between the mains and pipes supplying individual homes, which means they will be outside the properties. Boundary boxes are plastic cylinders designed to hold meters and connect them to the supplies that they will monitor. Water charges will be rolled out across the country in 2014 but not all households will be metered at that stage; those that are not will be charged on an assessment of what their average use should be. There will be free allowances for groups who are likely to face real difficulties in paying the charges and for those whose medical needs mean they have to consume large quantities of water. |
